Drift HD Ghost camera review

Comparing the new HD Ghost to the ever-popular GoPro can’t be avoided, but for general biker use, the Drift has the edge: The built-in screen makes framing your shot easy; the lens can be rotated through 300° to get the perfect angle; Picture quality is superb, with the camera handling changes in light very well; and the battery lasts up to three hours.

The included remote control can be strapped to your wrist, and allows you to start/stop recording, or take 11Mp still images. A genius feature is video tagging, which sets the camera running in a continuous loop, saving just the data from a pre-determined period. For instance, set it up for five minutes, and whenever you press the button on the camera or remote, it will save the last five minutes of action, the current five minutes, and the five minutes after that.

Built-in audio quality is good (and not hampered by a bulky case), but of course susceptible to wind noise, or you can use the microphone input (the Z1000 video used my cheap external mic in an attempt to record from inside my lid). The screen does add some weight to the unit, but it’s actually 17g lighter than a GoPro Hero 3 with its case and mounting bracket fitted. A 60m waterproof case is available for £34.99, but as the Ghost is safe to depths of 3m as standard, you really don’t need it for biking shots.

My only criticism is that the mounting clip system can vibrate a little. I fixed this with a very thin strip of foam, but the good thing about the design is that you can easily remove or fit it with your gloves on. A built-in ¼” thread fixing gives you plenty more mounting options too.

It might not have the very high-end features of a top-spec GoPro, or be ready for deep underwater shots out of the box, but for pretty-well every movie a biker might want to make, it’s close to perfect!